The Road Begins
by ElvisRose
Summary: Sam and Dean were trained by their father to hunt the creatures of the supernatural world. Now, their father has mysteriously disappeared while hunting the demon that killed their mother. Now its up to the boys to find their dad. With a little help from Sam's fiancee Jess and Dean's unemotional, and suspicious "friend" Castiel, of course.
1. Hey Brother

Sam didn't know how he had let Jess talk him into going to this stupid Halloween party. It was just a bung of grubby, horny college kids at the local bar. He hated Halloween and she knew it. Yet for some, sick, twisted reason she was still trying to get him to enjoy it. His life had practically been a Halloween horror movie/nightmare alley growing up. When you live it, it tends to lose its appeal. Jess on the other hand reveled in this kind of fucked up shit. She got into the sexy, slutty costumes and scary movies with a bizarre fervor. She claimed it was because it was a break from school but he didn't believe her.

Because here she was, at a pub crawl, talking about school. She was busy telling Luis all about how Sam had passed the LSAT with flying colors and about his interview on Monday. Luis, for his part looked suitably interested and impressed while also not giving a shit. Sam smiled to himself and downed his third shot of the night.

"How does it feel to be the golden boy of your family?" Luis chuckled taking another shot and slamming it down on the table.

"Ah, they don't know." Sam smiles, chugging his fourth shot, and rubbing the back of his neck.

"Oh, no, I would be gloating! Why not?" Luis looks genuinely confused. Sam sighs internally; explaining his family situation is always awkward.

"Because we're not exactly the Bradys." Sam says as if that explains everything. As if it would explain his father drunkenly yelling at him to stay gone. As if it explained Dean watching, visibly upset, but doing nothing, as Sam walked out of his life forever.

"And we're not exactly the Huxtables." Luis says pointedly, telling Sam what a shitty excuse that was. "More shots?" Luis says when he realizes that Sam isn't going to elaborate. Sam can tell that Luis has no grasp on how bad things actually are in his family.

"NO!" Jess and Sam laugh comfortably, watching while Luis goes to get some more alcohol and bad decisions. When he returns, Luis claps Sam on his shoulder as he slides into his seat.

"So golden boy, Bradys or not, you got to rub this in your family's face." Jess smiles encouragingly, never having met Sam's family. He hadn't even explained them to her. "Its like a rite of passage…or something." He mumbles into his beer.

"That would be bad all around." Sam laughs hesitantly and rubs the back of his neck, ruffling up the hair there.

"Why?" Luis asks and takes another shot.

"Well…my dad sort of kicked me out when I said that I got into Stanford." Jess and Luis balked. "He told me that if I walked out of the door I better never come back and Dean…" Sam's voice cracked and he looked away. "He just watched me walk away. Didn't even try to stop me. Didn't say goodbye or anything. I haven't heard from them in four years. Besides, Dean never even graduated high school. I think this just might drive the wedge of resentment deeper."

While the others vocalized how horrible this must have been, a realization hit Sam. Dean had never resented him. Sam had resented Dean. He loved Dean, he did, but he had always felt like Dean babied him. Sam had resented how cool under pressure Dean was, how easily likeable and charming he could be and how good he was in a fight. Dean had loved Sam like he was his own son. Sam frowned into his beer, wondering if perhaps Dean resented him now.

XXX

Jess stirred in the bed beside him and Sam froze in response. He blinked a moment and she settled down. Sam lay there contemplating his life. He missed Dean. He hadn't really had time to think about it in years. The first couple of months at Stanford without his big brother were crippling. Sam would never admit to curling up in one of Dean's old t-shirts that still smelled of the Impala and crying himself to sleep. He'd been 18, alone in the big bad world by himself for the first time in his life.

It was reasonable but still humiliating.

Dean had always been there to take care of him. And now, nearly five years later Sam didn't need him. That was a sobering thought. Sam could take care of himself, thank you very much! But he still missed his brother. Dean was stubborn and brave and more of a father to him than John had ever been. John had been all about making sure that Sam survived while Dean made sure that his Sammy lived.

Sam was so wrapped up in these thoughts that he almost didn't hear it.

A window sliding carefully open in the main room. Sam's eyes snapped open and he slid out of bed quietly, grabbing Jess' baseball bat as he went. A window was open in the living room. A window that he knows was closed when they got home. Quiet footsteps fall from the kitchen and Sam ducks behind the wall, watching as a shadow passes through the beaded doorway.

The intruder sighed dramatically and walked casually into the living room. Sam swung the bat. Lightning fast, the invader ripped it from his hands and threw it casually across the room. Sam lunged forward and grabbed the man's shoulder. The stranger knocked Sam's arm away and aimed a strike at Sam, who ducked. The man grabbed his arm and turning him, shoved him back.

A kick is blocked and the two entered fully into the living room. The man elbowed Sam in the face and Sam kicked at his head. The stranger was he ducked and took another swing and miss. Frustrated he went for a full body tackle and knocked Sam to the ground, pinning him down and holding his hands.

"Whoa, easy, tiger." A cocky voice laughs and Sam nearly cries with relief. It had been years but it was a voice he knew better than his own. It was almost as though his thoughts had summoned his brother.

"Dean?" He grunts and frowns at his brother, illuminated by the moonlight. Dean looks better than he had at 22. Though Sam supposes that the last they saw each other, Sam had been skipping town after a hunt. Dean had been bloody and bruised and the stress of Sam and John's argument hadn't helped.

Dean laughed, snapping Sam out of his poorly timed flashback. "You scared the crap out of me!" Sam scowled. Dean laughed again and stood, holding out a hand to his baby brother.

"That's 'cause you're out of practice." Sam grabbed his hand and yanked his brother down to the ground; heel to Dean's back, rolling on top of him. "Or not." Dean grunts and flashes his trademark winning smile. "Now get off of me." Same rolled his eyes and pulled his jerk brother up.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Sam asks, pleasantly surprised to find that Dean is much shorter than him now.

"Well, I was looking for a beer." Dean chuckles brushing the back of his pants off. Sam scowls and Dean sighs. "Okay. All right. We gotta talk."

"Uh, the phone?" Sam sighs, already falling back into disapproving of his brother.

"If I'd'a called, would you have picked up?" Dean challenges and his eyes flash in a dangerous way they didn't use to. And it sends chills down Sam's back. Sam frowns guiltily and Dean smirks smugly. The light flickered on and they turned to see Jess pushing back the beads and looking at them in confusion.

"Sam?"

"Jess." Sam had never wanted her to meet his brother but it seemed as though it was too late for that. "Hey. Dean, this is my girlfriend, Jessica." Dean, lecher that he was, eyed her up and down.

"Wait, your brother Dean?" Jess asked shocked, half-smiling when Sam nodded.

"Oh, I love the Smurfs." Dean says smirking at her cleavage peeking through a smurfs tee. "You know, I gotta tell you. You are completely out of my brother's league." He laughs at Sam's scowl.

"Just let me put something on." Jess murmurs, turning to go, feeling completely exposed and awkward.

"No, no, no, I wouldn't dream of it. Seriously." Dean smirks, walking towards Sam without looking away from her. Sam watched him impassively. "Anyway, I gotta borrow your boyfriend here, talk about some private family business. But, uh, nice meeting you."

"No." Dean turns in shock at the steel in Sam's voice. Sam shrugged away from his brother, walking towards Jess and wrapping his arms around her. "No, whatever you want to say, you can say it in front of her."

Sam can see a coldness creeping into Dean's gaze. He eyes them calculatingly, knowing that Sam would never tell Jess that he was a hunter. Not if he could help it.

"Okay." Dean says at last, finally finding the right words. "Um. Dad hasn't been home in a few days."

"So he's working overtime on a Miller Time shift. He'll stumble back in sooner or later." Sam snaps. He sees the scary glint in Dean's eyes again. Dean had always hated how difficult it was for Sam and John to get along. And he always took Johns side in an argument.

Sam realized that he had been raising his brother on a pedestal for years. Despite the resentment he had still worshipped him. It was only now that he was back that he remembered all of Dean's faults. Dean was a blind, mindless soldier, always doing exactly what their dad said.

Never once challenging his authority.

Dean ducked his head as if aware that his eyes were shining his anger. When he looked back up he looked like an innocent, worried son again. Sam swallowed, worried and slightly scared by how improved Dean's acting skills had gotten.

"Dad's on a hunting trip. And he hasn't been home in a few days." Sam's eye twitches and Jess looks at him confused and slightly suspicious.

"Jess, excuse us. We have to go outside."

XXX

Sam sighed, packing his duffel bag. He pulled out a large hook-shaped knife and slides it inside just as Jess walked in.

"Wait, you're taking off?" She blinks at him in confusion. "Is this about your dad? Is he all right?"

"Yeah. You know, just a little family drama." Sam smiled placating. Jess frowns at him slightly.

"Your brother said he was on some kind of hunting trip." She's fishing for answers, he knows but he's not ready to tell her. He sees the wheels turning in her head, trying to put the puzzle pieces together.

"Oh, yeah, he's just deer hunting up at the cabin; he's probably got Jim, Jack, and José along with him. I'm just going to go bring him back." He lies, hating how easy it is and mentally wincing at those ridiculous names.

"What about the interview?" She says, changing topic but by no means forgetting it.

"I'll make the interview. This is only for a couple days." He slings his bag over his shoulder and heads for the door.

"Sam, I mean, please." He stopped and sighed. "Just stop for a second. You sure you're okay?" Sam laughs a little at that. No he is not okay.

"I'm fine."

"It's just...you won't even talk about your family. And now you're taking off in the middle of the night to spend a weekend with them? And with Monday coming up, which is kind of a huge deal." She's fretting and he thinks its adorable.

"Hey. Everything's going to be okay. I will be back in time, I promise." He smiles and kisses her cheek before leaving.

"At least tell me where you're going!" she calls after him.

XXX

Sam doesn't understand what is happening. Dean's always hated police; he'd been nabbed too many times not too, and they weren't in the know about the supernatural. But now it seems like he's being overly rude.

He's trying too hard.

And it's not just this either. He bought a ton of junk at the gas station like always but Sam saw him eyeing the healthier stuff. And with the cassette tapes of all his favorite music. Sam didn't miss the way he winced when the tape started. It's like Dean was trying too hard to be himself.

Trying to be the Dean that Sam remembered.

Sam wondered about what happened to that Dean if he had to try to be himself. As if that old Dean was dead.

XXX

"Dean, I told you, I've gotta get back by Monday—" Sam starts as they search the bridge.

"Monday. Right. The interview." Dean sneers.

"Yeah." Sam says, scowling.

"Yeah, I forgot. You're really serious about this, aren't you? You think you're just going to become some lawyer? Marry your girl?" Dean snarls, shooting Sam a nasty glance. If Sam wasn't so upset he would have noticed that it lacked the usual heat.

"Maybe. Why not?" Sam snapped. He already had the ring. The last thing he needed right now was Dean's disapproval.

"Does Jessica know the truth about you? I mean, does she know about the things you've done?" Dean snapped, looking over the bridge railing into the river. Sam stepped closer and Dean paused to look up at him, his eyes suspicious. Distantly Sam wondered what his brother had been through that would make him distrust even his baby brother.

"No, and she's not ever going to know." Sam says with finality.

"Well, that's healthy." Dean rolls his eyes. "You can pretend all you want, Sammy. But sooner or later you're going to have to face up to who you really are." Sam feels like Dean is talking more to himself than to Sam. Dean turns and keeps walking.

"And who's that?" Sam follows automatically. This was the way life had always been. Dean led and Sam followed.

Well not anymore.

"You're one of us." Dean says after a pause.

"No. I'm not like you. This is not going to be my life." Sam snarled, grabbing Dean's arm to look him in the eye.

"You have a responsibility to—"

"To Dad? And his crusade? If it weren't for pictures I wouldn't even know what Mom looks like. And what difference would it make? Even if we do find the thing that killed her, Mom's gone. And she isn't coming back." He expected Dean's overreaction.

What he didn't expect was the few seconds it took, as if Dean were calculating how he would normally react in a situation like this. He grabbed Sam by the collar and shoved him into the bridge railing.

"Don't talk about her like that." He snarls but the anger isn't the same. It's all teeth and no bite.

XXX

The motel door swings open. Sam stands, having just picked the lock. Dean is outside, playing lookout, until Sam reaches out of the room to grab his shoulder and yank him inside. They look around, nearly every surface has papers pinned to it: maps, newspaper clippings, pictures, notes. There are books on the desk and assorted junk on the floor and bed, including something with a hazardous-materials symbol.

"Whoa." Sam says thinking that perhaps their dad had finally lost what little sanity he had left. He turned to see Dean turn on a light by the bed and pick up a half-eaten hamburger sitting there. His nose wrinkled in disgust. Sam stepped over a line of salt on the floor, still eyeing his suspicious brother.

"I don't think he's been here for a couple days at least." Dean says tossing the burger into the garbage can. Sam touched the salt ring on the floor and looks up.

"Salt, cats-eye shells...he was worried. Trying to keep something from coming in." Dean sighed wearily and approached the wall covered in paper.

"What have you got here?"

"Centennial Highway victims." Dean grunts, his eyes flying over the newspaper clippings. "I don't get it. I mean, different men, different jobs, ages, ethnicities. There's always a connection, right? What do these guys have in common?"

While Dean talks, Sam looks at the papers taped to the other walls. There's something about the Bell Witch, two people being burned alive, a skeletal man blowing a horn at several scared individuals with the note "MORTIS DANSE", a column about "Devils + Demons", another about "Sirens, Witches, the possessed", a wooden pentacle, and a note that says "Woman in White" above a printout of the Jericho Herald article on Constance's suicide.

"Dad figured it out." Sam whispers to himself. He turns to see a pale Dean reading the column about Devils+Demons. He looks like he had just seen a ghost…or what a normal person would look like in that scenario. "Dad figured it out." Sam says louder. Dean rips his gaze from the article and turns to Sam, smiling and pretending like nothing had happened.

Though his face is ashen and his eyes look haunted. Sam eyes him suspiciously.

XXX

It took Dean longer than usual to respond to the call of 'Jerk' with what should be an automatic 'Bitch.' Sam was starting to worry. He sat on the motel bed after just having left Jess a voicemail. Dean came slinking out of the bathroom, clean once again. He has a towel wrapped around his waist and another slung over his left shoulder as he rummages through his duffle. Sam pretends to be interested in his phone but he sees the towel on Dean's shoulder slip.

He barely suppresses a gasp at the burned handprint on Dean's shoulder. It looks like it would have hurt. And it looks newly healed. The skin still pink and bubbly. A month old, Sam guesses.

He's right about to ask about it when Dean stiffens as if sensing Sam's eyes on it. Dean turns and slams his way into the bathroom, taking the whole duffle bag with him. Sam wonders just what the hell his brother has been into these last few years.

XXX

When they were fighting Constance there had been a moment when she and Dean made eye contact and she had flinched. Sam was getting more and more suspicious of his brother by the minute. As they drive back to Stanford with a busted light Sam follows their dad's coordinates on a map. He notices how distant Dean seems, staring out the window and seeing nothing. Sam wonders for the first time if Dean is really as okay as he's always seemed.

"Hey Dean," he says as they pull up to the apartment. Dean grunts and looks at him, his eyes look tired and weary beyond his years. "Why don't you crash here tonight? We have a spare bedroom that will do you good. You look like you haven't had a decent night's sleep in ages."

"Okay thanks." Dean sighs, pulling the keys out of the ignition and getting his duffle out of the trunk. Sam watches him and notices that all of his movements seem to be slowed and tired. Old Dean would have protested at Sam taking care of him. Even when he was tired he was still stubborn and angsty.

Sam wondered briefly, as he unlocked his apartment, if Dean had even noticed that his façade had slipped.

The first thing he notices is a plate of chocolate chip cookies on the table, with a note that reads "Missed you! Love you!" He picks one up and eats it as he sneaks into the bedroom, smiling. Dean had headed straight towards the guest bedroom and closed the door.

The shower is running in Sam's room and he hears Jess humming to herself. Sam sits on the bed, shuts his eyes, and flops onto his back. He closes his eyes and sighs, feeling tension drain from his shoulders.

He sniffs and frowns, sitting up in confusion. The smell of Jess' perfume is heavy in the air but there is another smell. Fainter and much more foul. Sulfur. Hours old by the smell of it. Jess walks out of the bathroom in her robe, towel drying her hair. "Hey baby!" She smiles warmly.

He eyes her uncertainly. Dean's been keeping him on edge for ages and he can't drop the suspicion, even here.

"Jess why does it smell like sulfur?" Fear flickers in her eyes and she tries to cover it up, saying that a friend was doing a science experiment. Sam sighs and flops back onto the bed, staring at the ceiling. The more he stares at it, during her poor explanation, the more shapes start to take shape under the posters she's tacked up there. "Jess." He pauses, interrupting her. "Why is there a pentagram on the ceiling?"

Jess freezes and he looks at her. Her eyes are wide in shock and fear and she swallows loudly. Sam sits up, leaning on his elbows. She glances at him and then at the door as if calculating her chances of escape. Sam quirks an eyebrow. They both know that he's faster than her and with the sound of dinking around in the guest room, she had little chance of escape.

"Babe." He swallows thickly. "Why is there a devil's trap on the ceiling above our bed?" her eyes flicker to him in shock. She eyes him calculatingly and they both hesitate.

Jess seems to come to a decision as she rushes over to the bed and he flinches, back hitting the headboard. She pauses and stays at the edge of the bed, right under the border of the devil's trap.

So not a demon then.

"This is gonna be hard to explain so I need you to listen and not interrupt. Can you do that?" Sam nods, unease fogging his brain.

"I'm a hunter." She states. He blinks. His mind clears and he almost laughs for not seeing it before. "There are things out there Sam. Supernatural things. Monsters and demons and I hunt them. I stop them from hurting people. Or well…from hurting more people. They all seem to get a kick out of killing and/or eating people. So I kill them before they can kill again. Er…I used to before college. I'm kinda out of practice here. It smells like sulfur because there was…why are you laughing?"

Sam only laughed harder, wiping tears from his eyes as he gasped for breath. Jess stared at him indignantly. "I am serious, Sam! I know this sounds crazy but I promise you that I'm not crazy!" Sam just laughs again and pulls her into a kiss. She gawked at him before sitting back and eyeing him warily.

"I knew I loved you for a reason." He laughs.

"Babe…"

"I'm a hunter too." He smiles, taking pity on her confusion. She laughs with him this time, flopping onto the bed and laughing at the trap above them. They laugh at the bizarre-ness of their lives.

"Or I used to be…as well." He flops onto his stomach next to her. "I never liked hunting so I tried to get out of the life. But it seems like Dean and my dad are trying to pull me back in."

"So…" Jess frowns looking at him. "Dean?" he looks at her in confusion. "Dean Winchester. Son of John and Mary Winchester?"

"Yeah." Sam props himself onto his elbow and looks down at her. "Jess what's wrong?"

"I always thought the names had to be a coincidence but I guess not." She murmured, tucking his hair behind his ear.

"Jess what's wrong?" a small pit of unease had blossomed since Dean's arrival and Jess' scared and confused face was making it explode.

"I'm not a hunter anymore but I'm still in the know about things going on. Sam…I've heard about your brother and your father. They're scary good. They're the best hunters out there. The other hunters are actually scared of them. Whenever someone mentions them, people cross themselves."

Sam's eyebrows reach impressive heights. He'd always known his dad was ruthless but learning that Dean was like that too…it was concerning.

"And if that wasn't bad enough…." Jess swallowed and sat up. "Word spread about five months ago that Dean was…"

"What?" Sam gasped in shock.

"Dead."


	2. Whispers in the Dark

"Why would he…why would he let the world believe he was dead? Why would he want them to believe that?" Sam whispered searching her eyes for answers she didn't have.

"Hey Sammy!" Dean's voice echoed from the hallway. He swung the door open. "Heya Sam-woah…oh awkward." He looked away embarrassed. Jess looked to Sam and saw that he wasn't going to be able to speak anytime soon.

"What do you need Dean?" she asked. Dean smiled at her.

"I just need to borrow Sam's phone to call my Uncle Bobby's number. I lost my phone yesterday."

"Why do you need to talk to Bobby?" Sam asked, rolling over to look at his brother. Dean's eyes flitted to Jess and then back, pointedly. "It's okay. Turns out that Jess is a hunter too." Sam says awkwardly, rubbing his neck. Dean laughed in shock and eyed Jess again, this time appraisingly, calculating how good of a hunter she would be.

"Bobby and I trapped something the other day and I want to see if he has any more information on it. Plus he might be able to get a hold of my Dad. I wanted Dad's help to trap it, but he never showed up. That's why I was looking for him. But it doesn't seem like I'm going to find him soon."

"What did you set a trap for?" Sam pressed handing over the phone.

"Something we've never seen before." And the way Dean says it send chills down their backs.

"Like what?" Jess asked, wrapping her arms around Sam and putting her chin on his shoulder.

"Something that's capable of pulling someone out of Hell and back into their restored body." Dean said casually, dialing Bobby's number. "I'll leave you two to it." He waved his hand vaguely between them and headed out the door. Jess and Sam shared a worried look. "Cookies are amazing by the way." Dean smiled, sticking his head back into their room, mouth full of cookie.

Jess laughed and Sam made a split second decision, sliding out of the bed vaulting over to his window, silently sliding it open. At first Jess was confused about why he did that but then she heard Dean plunking himself down onto the stairs in front of their window.

She smiled in wonder, realizing that Sam must have known that Dean would go outside to talk.

Sam slid to the floor by the window, silently eavesdropping. Jess padded over and joined him on the floor. They listened to the dial tone, Dean had put the phone on speaker, waiting for Bobby to pick up. But it wasn't Bobby that answered.

"Dean." A gruff, deep Voice answered. The hair on Sam and Jess' arms stood on end at the sheer power emanating from that Voice.

"Heya Cas," Dean's voice sounded fond and sweet. Much like the Dean that Sam remembered. The Dean that packed Sam's lunch and came to his school plays.

"I don't understand why I need this contraption." The Voice sounded peeved. "All you need to do is pray to me and I can come to you."

"Well as convenient as that may be," Dean snarked, "This is better. Trust me." A sigh and then,

"What do you need Dean?"

"I'm heading up to Blackwater Ridge tomorrow. My dad left Sammy some coordinates for there. I just wanted to know if you could pop in for me. See if my dad is actually there or if I'm gonna be stuck cleaning up his messes again."

"I'll see what I can do, Dean."

"Thank you." Dean whispered hoarsely. There was a slight fluttering from the other end. "So..." Dean swallowed. "Have any more seals been broken?"

"No Dean." The Voice sounded pleased but exhausted. "My brothers and I have stopped them quite successfully. We only lost one brother. The demons want the seals broken but they're in no hurry. Azazel has a massive scheme in the works. They're waiting for that to come to fruition before getting serious about breaking the seals." Sam and Jess shared a confused look.

"I spent the weekend with Sammy." Dean said after a moment of nothing but fluttering. His voice sounded so happy and sad at the same time, it brought tears to Sam's eyes. He realized then that he wasn't the only one who missed his brother.

"Hmm." Cas agreed. "I saw. It went much better than you suspected it would. I told you. He loves you still. He's just angry that you didn't try to stop him from leaving all those years ago." Cas grunted.

"He left me." Dean's defensive voice sounded broken. "He left me alone to bear the brunt of dad's anger. I didn't deserve that." Sam's eyes widened, never having thought of it that way.

"No Dean, you didn't." Cas agreed. "You didn't deserve anything you've been put through."

"Thanks Cas." There was comfortable silence for a moment and then, "Any luck?"

"Your father is not in town. But he didn't finish the case either. It's a wendigo." Dean cursed and Sam and Jess shared a scared look. "Dean your father..."

"Is a right bastard?" Dean laughed sarcastically.

"I was thinking something less crass but yes. How could he let these people die and do nothing? He hasn't been bothering to save them. He thinks he's sending Sam to do it. It frustrates me."

"It frustrates me too Cas. But I could say the same thing about your father." The Voice growled slightly and Dean chuckled a little. "Alright. Well you don't have to handle the case; I'll be there tomorrow afternoon."

"I would like to help, if you'll let me." Cas said calmly. Sam could practically hear the smile in Dean's voice.

"Don't you have demons to smite?" Dean laughed casually. Cas grumbled.

"Technically my one duty is to protect you. And if that means I have to protect you from vicious man eating monsters then so be it." The Voice sounded peeved.

"Sure Cas." Dean giggled. Actually giggled! "You can help."

"I will see you tomorrow Dean, pleasant dreams."

"Thanks Cas, for everything." Dean murmured, ending the call. It was silent for a moment and Sam and Jess shared terrified and confused stares.

"Of course." The line went dead and Dean sighed. Dean ran a hand through his hair and dialed Bobby's number. It answered on the first ring.

"Sam?" Bobby sounded relieved, worried and confused all at once. Sam had been gone for nearly five years and until this very moment he had never realized what an impact his leaving would have.

"Nah, just me." Dean sighed.

"Damn, kid, get my hopes up." Bobby grumbled. Dean laughed.

"Sorry Bobby, I won't be back for a while. Dad left Sam another mess to clean up."

"Bastard." Bobby grunted. Dean smirked.

"I wonder how long its gonna take the old man to realize that Sam isn't the one following his instructions and tracking him." Dean smiled darkly. Sam swallowed in fear; the day that Dean stopped worshipping John Winchester was the day that Hell opened up her steely jaws.

"Probably awhile. That man is as thick as my-"

"Bobby!" Dean laughed. "Anyways, you find anything new for me?"

"Yeah hang on." Bobby grunted. "So...Lilith needs to break 66 seals to open Lucifer's cage and free him."

"We already know this Bobby. They've already broken three." Sam paled and Jess shivered violently.

"Right. Well, I've figured out why your little 'friends' can't always be stopping them."

"Oh?"

"There's literally hundreds of seals. I doubt they have enough man power and holy hand grenades to protect every single seal. We have no way of knowing which seal they're going to pick next." Dean groaned and ran a hand through his hair.

"Alright. You find anything yet on how to stop my 'friends'?"

"I like Castiel, you still planning on ganking him? Despite the fact that he nearly killed me, he's ok." Bobby grunted.

"No. I'm not gonna hurt Cas. I like him. Hell I trust him more than I trust myself. More than I trust anyone. It's his family I don't trust."

"That's a dangerous kind of trust there, son."

"I know Bobby. But you and Cas are all the family I've got." Sam winced.

"What about Sam? You're calling from his phone so obviously you've found him."

"He wasn't lost Bobby. Just to me…He's got his life here. He doesn't need me. Ya know? He's got his friends and his girl. I think he's gonna marry her."

"She out of his league?"

"She's so out of his league it's like me dating God." Dean laughed slightly.

"Well now, I don't know. I think you two would make a lovely couple.

"Fuck off, Bobby." Dean chuckled. "Point is Sam's got his life. I've got mine. He wanted out of this life and I'm going to keep him out."

"Alright son, just…take care." Bobby sighed.

"You too you grumpy old bastard." Dean laughed, standing and turning to go inside.

Dean went inside. Jess slammed the window shut and she and Sam raced to the bed, panicked. Dean opened their bedroom door and tossed an out of breath Sam his phone.

"Thanks Romeo."

"So, uh, did Bobby have any more info on that thing you trapped?" Jess gasped, trying to catch her breath.

"No, uh, he hasn't found anything else." Dean lied easily. "I'm just gonna keep following dad's trail, maybe I'll catch him one of these days." Sam hated how easily the lies rolled off Dean's tongue. If Sam hadn't heard Dean's' conversations with 'Cas' and Bobby he would easily have believed Dean's lies. "I'm heading up to Blackwater Ridge in the morning."

"We'll come with you!" Jess declares, beaming. Sam and Dean looked at her in shock and horror. "What? We can head out after Sam's interview tomorrow." Dean looks at Sam, raising an eyebrow.

"Alright." Sam smiles giving Jess a quick kiss.

"Eeuch" Dean winces and heads out of their room, fleeing from their laughter. 


	3. Lie to Me

AUTHORS NOTE: If you're just dropping in on this chapter I'd like you to know that I edited the first two chapters. Go take a look if you'd like. It might be necessary. This chapter isn't going to be very long, sorry. But the next one is going to be longer. And to all my new viewers, reviews are love!

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Sam stared at Jess in horror as Dean left their room. She dutifully ignored him as she got ready for bed. He never took his horror struck expression off her. Not even when she made him change for bed. "Jess." He whispered, strangled as she turned out the lights and they tucked themselves in.

"Lucifer's rising." Jess whispered to the devil's trap above them. Sam swallowed thickly. "We're going with Dean because I want to know what the hell is going on."

"I'm going to have nightmares for the rest of my life." Sam whispered into her shoulder, curling around her. She stroked his hair absently. "Dean giggled when he was talking to that man." Sam gasped in horror. Jess laughed loudly and smacked the back of his head.

XXX

The car ride to Blackwater ridge was weird. Dean wasn't used to having a third passenger. He especially wasn't used to having a girl tagging along. Female hunters were terrifying hurricanes, best to be avoided. So Dean did his best to not get in Jess' way.

Jess and Sam bored him for the first couple hours with their analysis of Sam's interview. They went over every question, how Sam answered it. They even studied his voice inflections and facial expressions. Dean rolled his eyes and pulled into the gas station.

He let Sam fill up the impala while he went inside to piss. Cas popped up while he was washing his hands and he didn't even flinch.

"Well, at least you waited until I was done pissing." Dean sighed, turning to look at Cas.

"The wendigo took another human last night." Cas declared without preamble. Dean sighed and ran a hand through his hair while Cas stared at him.

"We'll be there in a few hours. Hopefully it will be in time."

"Hmm." Cas hummed, absently reaching out and placing his hand on the handprint on Dean's shoulder. Dean quirked an eyebrow at him. "Stay safe, please." His voice sounded strained. "I can't protect you from this monster when the others are there. I know that you will sacrifice yourself to save them."

"Right." Dean swallowed thickly. "Can't have the righteous man getting killed by something as mundane as a wendigo." Cas scowled at him.

"You're the only friend I have, Winchester. If you die, I'll kill you." Dean smirked.

"So, you gonna ride with us, or meet us there?"

"I…" Cas cleared his throat. "I have a new, temporary assignment. "I'm afraid I won't be able to help for a day or two."

"Hey that's ok man." Dean punched his arm, playfully. "That's not even that long a time for you."

"Yes, but it could be your last days. I do not like it." He growled. Dean's eyes crinkled.

"I lasted 26 years without you Cas. I'll last two days. Promise." Cas hummed and as Dean went to open the bathroom door he spoke.

"Sam knows that you're faking it." Dean turned to him in shock, fear flickering across his face. "Jess heard that you had died. She told him. He thinks that you faked your death. He doesn't know that you didn't. But he does know that the Dean he used to know is changed. He can see you trying to be the old you."

"What wrong with being pre-hell Dean?" Dean swallowed thickly.

"He was naive, and a bit of an ass." Cas smirked. "Lie to your brother all you want about the apocalypse, but don't lie about who you are." And with a fluttering of wings, he was gone and Dean was standing in the bathroom doorway like an idiot.


	4. Wendigo

Sam sighed, walking through Lawrence, Kansas' cemetery. He stopped in front of a nondescript grave marker and crouched down, he glanced over his shoulder at Jess, standing a way off. He turns back to the grave, back to what is left of Dean.

Its a simple grave. It reads: DEAN WINCHESTER, A HERO IN HIS OWN RIGHT, JANUARY 24, 1979- APRIL 22, 2005. It has a small picture of Dean above it, in his dad's leather jacket with his cocky smirk. Sam's heart wrenches painfully

"I..uh..." Sam swallowed painfully, "I don't know what to say. You died, and I wasn't there. I don't even know how, or why." He swallowed again. "Dad won't tell me anything. No one will." He sighed again. "You died thinking I hated you..." he sighed a third time and placed a classic rock mix tape on the empty grave.

He closed his eyes and willed himself not to cry. The ground beneath him trembled and he looked down in shock. Dean's strong arm shot out of the grave, covered in dirt, and grabbed his wrist.

Sam jerked awake and looked around startled. Dean side eyed him and then looked back to the road, not bothering to ask. Ever since their last rest stop Dean had been quiet and contemplative. It unnerved Sam. Almost as much as the low volume rock songs the stereo was cranking out.

"You okay?" Jess asks from the back seat. She's spread out over the whole bench, painting her nails blood red. Sam wrinkles his nose at the stench of the nail polish and glances at Dean...Who doesn't seem to have noticed. Or he doesn't care. Sam's anxiety ratchets up a notch at that.

He glances back to see Jess staring at him expectantly.

"Yeah I'm fine." He grunts. The corner of Dean's mouth twitches.

"Another nightmare?" He'd been having them ever since he overheard Dean's phone calls. Sam grunts again. Dean side eyes him again and then clears his throat.

"You wanna drive for a while?" He asks. Sam gapes at him and then laughs slightly hysterically. "What?" Dean grumbles, eyeing Sam like he's insane

"Dean, you've never once asked me that in your whole life." Sam squints at him before agreeing to drive. Dean smirked and pulled over to the shoulder, getting out and stretching while Sam scooted into the driver's seat. Dean groaned as his back popped and then he walked around the car and got into the passenger seat.

They drive for 50 more miles before Dean turns to Jess. "Did you ever get a good look at the demon that was in your apartment?" Jess looked up from her book and frowned.

"What good would that do? Demons can just pick a new meat suit." Dean sighs and turns back around in his seat, looking out his window quietly. A few minutes later Jess speaks, "But I did get a good look at him before I sent him back to hell. He had yellow eyes, have you ever heard of-"

She was cut off as Sam slammed on the brakes and the boys turned to look at her in shock.

"What?" she asked, watching as the brothers looked at each other in horror.

"Jesus, Sam." Dean breathes.

"It's been 22 years. Why is he back now?"

"Who?" Jess asks pointedly.

"The demon that killed our mom." Sam says the Same time that Dean says "Azazel."

Dean realizes his mistake and winces as Sam and Jess stare at him in shock. "You know his name?" Sam asks. "Dad's been hunting this thing for ages. And he doesn't even know its name. Why do you?"

"Because I found him." Dean grunts. "Not dad, me."

"How are you still alive?" Sam asks as they drive on.

"Hmm? Oh he doesn't really care about me." Dean scratched his scruff absently. "I don't interest him."

"Didn't you exorcise him?"

"What's the point? When he's in Hell I can't kill him." Dean growled.

"You can't kill a demon." Jess says unhelpfully from the back seat.

"Oh, there are ways." Dean says darkly, staring into the tree line through the window.

XXX

"So Blackwater Ridge is pretty remote. It's cut off by these canyons here, rough terrain, and dense forest, abandoned silver and gold mines all over the place." Sam says, eyeing the 3D diagram at the rangers station while Jess flips through brochures and Dean wanders off.

"Dude, check out the size of this fucking bear." Dean says, interrupting whatever logical nonsense he was sure Sam was spouting. Jess and Sam come up behind him to look at the picture of a dead grizzlies that had to be the size of a small elephant. Jess lets out a low whistle.

"And a dozen or more grizzlies in the area. It's no nature hike, that's for sure." Sam says continuing on with his spiel.

"You boys aren't planning on going out near Blackwater Ridge by any chance?" the trio whirled around to see the ranger hiking up his pants and sipping a cup of joe at the Same time.

"Oh, no, sir, we're environmental study majors from UC Boulder, just working on a paper." Sam lies automatically. Dean and Jess share a quick look of surprise at Sam's quick save, and then turn back. Sam laughs awkwardly.

"Recycle, man." Dean says, raising a fist, his ring glinting in the artificial light.

"Bull shit." The man says, hand on his hip. Sam flicks a worried gaze to the back of Dean's head but Dean doesn't even look fazed. "You're friends with that Haley girl, right?" the man sighs walking over to his desk.

"Yes" Dean says after a seconds thought. "Yes, we are, Ranger…Wilkinson."

"Well I will tell you exactly what we told her. Her brother filled out a backcountry permit saying he wouldn't be back from Blackwater until the twenty-fourth, so it's not exactly a missing persons now, is it?"

Dean pursed his lips and mouthed "No" while managing to look derisive and caring at the Same time. Jess raised her eyebrow at Sam who was frowning slightly at Dean.

"You tell that girl to quit worrying, I'm sure her brother's just fine." The ranger said, making his way back to the front doors

"We will. Well that Haley girl's quite a pistol, huh?"

"That is putting it mildly."

"Actually you know what would help is if I could show her a copy of that backcountry permit. You know, so she could see her brother's return date." Dean and the ranger had a silent stare down before the man caved.

They leave the station with the permit and a smirking Dean.

"What, are you cruising for a hookup or something?" Sam snarks, opening the passenger door. Jess eyes the boys warily before sighing and sliding into the back.

"What do you mean?" Dean frowns.

"The coordinates point to Blackwater Ridge, so what are we waiting for? Let's just go find Dad. I mean, why even talk to this girl?" Sam scowls back, wondering what Dean's deal is.

"I don't know, maybe we should know what we're walking into before we actually walk into it?" Dean raises and eyebrow and opens his car door. Sam scowls harder; they all know it's a wendigo. If only Dean felt like he could share the information that his supernatural pal gave him.

"What?" Sam grumbles when he realizes that Dean has been eyeing him clinically and detached, as if looking for the best way to dissect him.

"Since when are you all shoot first ask questions later, anyway?" Dean mutters, ducking into the car.

"Since now." Sam snaps, thinking, _Since apparently it's the fucking apocalypse!_

XXX

The front door is opened mere seconds after "You must be Haley Collins. I'm Dean, this is Sam, we're, ah, we're rangers with the Park Service. Ranger Wilkinson sent us over. He wanted us to ask a few questions about your brother Tommy." Dean says introducing the brothers. The impala honks from behind them and they turn to see Jess leaning out the window.

"Hey assholes! Imma go get dinner. What do you want?" she shouts. Dean laughs.

"That's Sam's fiancée Jess." He says to Haley before turning and shouting back. "Get some Tai, or something." Sam side eyes Dean before shrugging at Jess. Dean tosses her the car keys and she drives away. They turn back to see a hesitating Haley eyeing them.

"Lemme see some ID."

Dean pulls out a fake ID with the name 'Samuel Cole' and holds it up against the screen. Haley looks at it, then at Dean, who smiles. Haley opens the door and lets them in.

"Come on in. Nice car." She says as they follow her into the kitchen where her younger brother Ben is sitting at the table.

"So if Tommy's not due back for a while, how do you know something's wrong?" Sam asks, getting right to the point.

"He checks in every day by cell. He emails, photos, stupid little videos—we haven't heard anything in over three days now." She says, setting a bowl on the table.

"Well, maybe he can't get cell reception." Sam grumbles, a little bitchy. Dean smirks to himself.

"He's got a satellite phone, too." Haley sasses right back.

"Could it be he's just having fun and forgot to check in?" Dean asks, trying to maintain an air of professionalism while internally laughing at Sam's bitchface number three.

"He wouldn't do that." Ben snapped angrily. Dean raised an eyebrow at him and Ben scowled and looked away.

"Our parents are gone. It's just my two brothers and me." Haley says like she has to exlain Ben's behavior. "We all keep pretty close tabs on each other." Dean nods; he knows the feeling. He'd kept tabs on his little brother while he was away at college. But its not like he was going to tell Same that.

"Can I see the pictures he sent you?" Sam asks. Haley agrees and they head to the living room where she's left her laptop. She and Sam settle down on the couch as she opens up the photos and Dean looks around, curious.

"That's Tommy." Haley sighed, opening his latest video.

"Hey Haley, day six, we're still out near Blackwater Ridge. We're fine, keeping safe, so don't worry, okay? Talk to you tomorrow." Tommy's voice filters through the laptop speakers as Sam replays the video. Dean sighs, recognizing that look on Sam's face; he's seen something in the video that no one else did.

"Well, we'll find your brother. We're heading out to Blackwater Ridge first thing." Dean says, shoving his hands in his pockets, nonchalantly.

"Then maybe I'll see you there." She says, standing, placing on hand on her hip and daring him to argue. "Look, I can't sit around here anymore. So I hired a guy. I'm heading out in the morning, and I'm gonna find Tommy myself."

"I know how you feel." Dean says, relaxed and Sam side eyes him, wondering what the heck Dean's deal was.

XXX

Dean and Jess are devouring styrofoam take out containers of tai as Sam clacks away at his laptop at the local bar.

"So, Blackwater Ridge doesn't get a lot of traffic. Local campers, mostly. But still, this past April, two hikers went missing out there. They were never found." Sam says, casual as you please and Jess and Dean look up, noodles hanging out of their mouths. He flashes them bitchface number seven and opens up their dad's journal.

"Any before that?" Dean asks around a mouth full of take out. Sam wordlessly hands him a newspaper article and goes back to flipping through the journal. He's discreatly watching his brother the whole time, wondering about the subtle changes he's noticed there.

"1982, eight different people all vanished in the Same year. Authorities said it was a grizzly attack." Sam says, closing the diary and opening a new window on his laptop. "And again in 1959 and again before that in 1936."

Jess and Dean share uneasy looks.

"Every twenty-three years, just like clockwork. Okay. Watch this. Here's a clincher. I downloaded that guy Tommy's video to the laptop. Check this out." Sam says, pulling up the video and goes through three frames of the video one at a time. A shadow crosses the screen.

"Do it again." Dean demands, tai forgotten for now.

Sam repeats the frames.

"That's three frames. That's a fraction of a second. Whatever that thing is, it can move." Sam says, like he hadn't overheard Cas tell Dean it was a wendigo. Jess looks at Dean, and Sam can tell that they're both wondering when Dean will tell them what was going on. Dean hit Sam with the back of his hand and smirked.

"Told you something weird was going on."

"Yeah." Sam says, disappointed, closing his laptop. "I got one more thing." He said handing over another newspaper article. "In 'fifty-nine one camper survived this supposed grizzly attack. Just a kid. Barely crawled out of the woods alive."

"Is there a name?" Dean asks, reading the article and shoving more food into his black hole of a mouth.

XXX

"Look, ranger, I don't know why you're asking me about this. It's public record. I was a kid. My parents got mauled by a—"

"Grizzly? That's what attacked them?" Sam interrupts Mr. Shaw and Jess smacks his chest for being rude. Mr. Shaw takes a puff of his cigarette, takes it out, and nods.

"The other people that went missing that year, were those bear attacks too?" Jess asks. Mr Shaw stares at her as if debating about telling the truth. Sam sighs. He's strangely glad that Dean isn't here for this interview. Dean's been acting strange the whole day. Sam kept catching him staring of into space, deep in thought. And his smiles were strained and painted on. Sam didn't know who Dean thought he was fooling.

Jess didn't even know Dean and she could tell that something was wrong with the fool.

"What about all the people that went missing this year? Same thing?" Jess presses and Sam smiles, thinking about how similar Jess is to the old Dean. Mr. Shaw remains silent. Jess sighed and glanced at Sam in frustration before turning back to the old man.

"If we knew what we were dealing with, we might be able to stop it." She pleads.

"I seriously doubt that. Anyways, I don't see what difference it would make." Shaw grumbles, plunking down into a well-worn leather armchair and sighing heavily. "You wouldn't believe me. Nobody ever did." Sam took it for the opening it was and dropped onto the couch across from the man.

"Mr. Shaw, what did you see?" He asks, leaning forward as Jess slides gracefully onto the couch.

"Nothing. It moved too fast to see. It hid too well. I heard it, though. A roar. Like...no man or animal I ever heard." Shaw shuddered and Jess worried her bottom lip.

"It came at night?" Sam asks. He doesn't know why they're doing these interviews; they know what it is. If only Dean would be willing to share his intel. Shaw nods and Sam has to backtrack to think about what question he'd asked.

"It got inside your tent?"

"It got inside our cabin. I was sleeping in front of the fireplace when it came in. It didn't smash a window or break the door. It unlocked it. Do you know of a bear that could do something like that? I didn't even wake up till I heard my parents screaming." Sam feels a chill run down his back and he sees Jess shudder. Sam knows of a lot of monsters but not many of them could do that.

"It killed them?"

"Dragged them off into the night." Shaw grumbled, shaking his head.

"Why it left me alive...been asking myself that ever since." His voice was rough and worn. He paused and his hands shook slightly as he reached for the collar of his shirt. "Did leave me this, though." He said opening his collar to reveal three long scars. Claw marks. Jess and Sam look at them and then at each other. "There's something evil in those woods. It was some sort of a demon."

Sam highly doubts that. But at least he has enough that will help Dean tell them it's a wendigo like he worked it out on his own.

XXX

"Spirits and demons don't have to unlock doors. If they want inside, they just go through the walls." Dean says as they walk out towards the impala. He knows he should just tell Sam that it's a Wendigo but that will lead to all sorts of questions. Questions he doesn't want to happen until he has Cas by his side.

"So it's probably something else, something corporeal." Sam grumbles bitchily, side eyeing him again. Dean sighs in frustration, Sam's been trying to be discreet about his _"Dean Watching"_ but since Cas rebuilt his body, Dean's senses are heightened.

"Corporeal? Excuse me, professor." Jess laughs from the other side of Sam and pushing the door open to the parking lot.

Dean smirks. He likes Jess. She's a good match for Sam, she'll take good care of him. She's smarts and sassy and funny and bad ass. Dean's never seen her in a fight but she's been subtly manipulating them into doing all the work on this hunt so far. So he has no doubt that she'd be strategic and smart about a fight. Not anger and pure fury, like himself.

"Shut up." Sam said affectionately. "So what do you think?" He turned back to Dean." Dean rolled his eyes.

"The claws, the speed that it moves...could be a skinwalker, maybe a black dog, wendigo." He puts the idea there subtly to get the idea across. "Whatever we're talking about, we're talking about a creature, and it's corporeal. Which means we can kill it." He says, openings the trunk of the impala, then the weapons box, and props it open with a shotgun. He puts some guns in a duffel bag.

"We cannot let that Haley girl go out there." Sam grumbles, leaning one hip against the trunk. Jess crosses her arms over her chest and raises and eyebrow and Dean smirks; definitely good for his brother.

"Oh yeah? What are we gonna tell her? That she can't go into the woods because of a big scary monster?" Dean quips sarcastically.

"Yeah." Sam says without a trace of saracasm. Dean meats his eyes and they both scowl identical scowls, daring the other to back down.

"Her brother's missing, Sam. She's not gonna just sit this out. Now we go with her, we protect her, and we keep our eyes peeled for our fuzzy predator friend." Dean snapped, grabbing his duffle.

"Finding Dad's not enough?" Sam snapped, slaming the weapons box shut, then the trunk. "Now we gotta babysit too?"

"She's older than you, bitch." Dean laughs and throws the duffel bag at Sam, walking away. Sam stares after him.

"I like your brother. He's funny." Jess smirked, hauling the duffle onto her back.

"He's an ass." Sam grumbled.

"So death hasn't changed that then." Jess laughed joyously.

"He didn't die, Jess." Sam turns to her. "He just faked it. Something has to be after him. I jst need to find out what."

"So…what do you reckon his friend 'Cas' is? Demon? Shifter? Rugaru? Puka?" Jess asks, swaying her hips as she walks back towards the motel.

"Why do you think he's anything but human?" Sam asks, opening the door for her. She pauses and levels him with her bitchface number six.

"Dean asked him to check out this place and he had answers a minute later. That's some kind of freaky shit."

"Maybe he was in the vicinity."

"Vicinity." Jess mutters sarcastically and Sam rolls his eyes at her back. "Besides, Dean would never trust anything that wasn't human. He doesn't even trust humans."

XXX

A man that Dean immediately dislikes on principle, is talkings to Haley and Ben while checking a shotgun when the trio pull up in the impala.

"I'll tell you again, I don't think Ben should come." The man is growling as Dean slides out of the car.

"Roy—" Haley starts.

"Look, you're paying me good money to keep everybody safe. I think Ben's safest at home." The man snapped, interrupting her.

"You guys got room for three more?" Dean asks as Sam and Jess grab the duffle from the trunk.

"Wait, you want to come with us?" Haley frowns, turning fully to face him.

"Who are these guys?" Roy snaps. Dean frowns at the guys bad manners; he's met demons he's liked better than this guy.

"Apparently this is all the park service could muster up for the search and rescue." Haley says, eyeing them like pests. Sam rolls his eyes and slings his bag over his shoulder and marches up the traill

"You're rangers?" Roy asks skeptically.

"That's right." Dean smiles politely.

"And you're hiking out in biker boots and jeans?" Haley frowns. Dean looked down, shrugged and followed after Sam.

"Well, sweetheart, I don't do shorts." Dean laughs.

"I bet your ass would look fine in them though." Jess says, following them. Sam makes a disgusted noise and the blondes laugh uproariously.

DEAN heads past HALEY.

"What, you think this is funny? It's dangerous back country out there. Her brother might be hurt." Roy snarls at their backs. Sam turned to face him, leveling bitchface number 27 at him. Jess and Dean share a smirk and look at the last three of the group.

"Believe me, I know how dangerous it can be. We just wanna help them find their brother, that's all." Dean says when it becomes clear that Sam isn't going to do more than glare. Dean trudges on past his brother, hitting him with his shoulder on the way up. Sam frowns at his back. Didn't Dean's friend say he was going to help them?

Demon or not he'd be a better help than this pissed of hunter, a sassy woman and a teenager full of unending angst.

Dean doesn't seem worried though.

Sam wonders what Dean's lie will be when his friend shows up. He sighs, taking Jess' hand as they march on. They hike through the day, Roy in the lead, then Dean and Jess, bickering about something or the other, Haley, Ben, and Sam bringing up the rear in silence.

"Roy, you said you did a little hunting." Dean says, loudly. Roy turns to look at him, disgusted.

"Yeah, more than a little." He snips, lip curling. Jess sniggers.

"Uh-huh. What kind of furry critters do you hunt?" Dean asks, pulling his arm in front of his chest and popping his shoulder.

"Mostly buck, sometimes bear." Roy stops to glare furiously at him. Dean smirks evilly, that cold glint returning to his eyes, as he passes him.

"Tell me, uh, Bambi or Yogi ever hunt you back?" Dean asks, stomping on. Roy reached out and grabbed a fistful of his jacket and pulled him back. Jess and Sam immediately reach for their stashed pistols. Dean is reminded of all the monsters that have ever gotten the drop on him.

"Whatcha doing, Roy?" He asks, voice dangerously low, even to himself. Haley and Ben look scared and it's not for him. The thought makes him feel a little sick. Roy says nothing, pushing him back and stabbing a stick into a bear trap Dean had almost stepped in. Haley looks annoyed while Ben looks relieved. Jess and Sam's hands drop from their hips like they hadn't been three seconds away from blasting Roy's brains out.

"You should watch where you're stepping. Ranger." Roy snarled, pushing past Dean and resuming his turn at line leader. Dean rolled his eyes and slung an arm around Jessica's shoulders. She punched him playfully in the side and they saunter on.

Haley jogs a little bit to catch up with them.

"You didn't pack any provisions. You guys are carrying a _duffel_ bag. You're not rangers." She says accusingly. "And don't think I didn't notice these two reaching for their guns." She growls. Sam, Dean and Jess and share a look. "So who the hell are you?"

Ben passes the trio and Dean releases Jess, jerking with his chin for Sam and her to follow the kid. Dean and Haley watch them go for a moment.

"Sam and I are brothers, and we're looking for our father. He might be here, we don't know. I just figured that you and me, we're in the same boat."

"Why didn't you just tell me that from the start?" She says in confusion.

"I'm telling you now. 'sides, it's probably the most honest I've ever been with a woman. ...ever. So we okay?" Dean says casually, though he's been mighty honest with Jess, he's still keeping an awful lot from her. And Sam.

"Yeah, okay." Haley sighes.

"And what do you mean I didn't pack provisions?" he smiles pulling out giant bag of peanut M&Ms and shoves a handful into his mouth as he hikes on.

XXX

"This is it. Blackwater Ridge." For once Dean is grateful for the annoying man. They'd all been silent for hours, trudging on. Jess and Sam had been whispering sweet nothings to each other and everyone kept as far away from them as possible. As the day dragged on Dean had started sinking deeper and deeper into his own mind, getting lost in his own memories. That was never a good thing.

He was grateful for Roy's annoying self-righteousness that dragged him out of his PTSD.

"What coordinates are we at?" Sam asks, rubbing his eyes. Roy grumbles, pulling out his GPS which reads N 35o 45.383, W 111o 00.55.

"Thirty-five and minus one-eleven."

"You hear that?" Dean asks. They all pause. Roy, looks concerned, Haley and Ben look confused and annoyed. Jess and Sam trade uneasy glances.

"Yeah. Not even crickets." Jess whispers.

"I'm gonna go take a look around." Roy grumbles.

"You shouldn't go off by yourself." Sam calls after him

"That's sweet. Don't worry about me." Roy says patronizingly, pushing ahead of the group as Sam's lip curls. A half hour later they hear Roy calling for them. They run towards his voice and skid to a halt; they've found Tommy's campsite and its covered in blood.

"Oh my God." Haley whispers. The tents are torn open and bloody and all the supplies are scattered.

"Looks like a grizzly." Roy grumbles. Dean and the other hunters roll their eyes and scatter around the campsite looking for clues.

"The bodies were dragged from the campsite." Dean frowns to himself. Jess and Sam head over to look at the trails, the other three behind them. "But here, the tracks just vanish. That's weird." As one the hunting trio look up.

"Ew." Jess whispers and the bloody leaves.

"I'll tell you what, that's no skinwalker or black dog." Sam grumbles. The civilian trio look confused. Sam waits for Dean to announce it's a wendigo but it doesn't come. He sighs as he watches Dean go off to comfort Haley.

"Help! Help!" the six of them freeze and turn towards the voice. Roy takes off and they all run after him, looking for the shouter.

"Help! Somebody!"

They find no one.

"It seemed like it was coming from around here, didn't it?" Haley asks after they stop, the six of them spread out over a twenty foot radius.

They listen.

It's dead silent.

"Everybody back to camp." Sam says suddenly, doing a 180 and darting back. Back at the campsite, all the supplies are missing.

"Dammit!" Sam curses, kicking the ruined tent and dropping into a crouch to examine the ground.

"So much for my GPS and my satellite phone." Roy growls.

"What the hell is going on?" Haley shrieks.

"It's smart. It wants to cut us off so we can't call for help." Sam says, making eye-contact with Dean and Jess.

"You mean someone, some nutjob out there just stole all our gear?" Roy snarls. Sam approaches Dean who's furiously rooting through their dad's journal.

"All right, check that out." Dean says pointing to the figure drawn there. Sam frowns.

"What?" It's about damn time Dean told them it was a wendigo.

"I have no fucking clue. A friend told me what it could be but I didn't want to believe it. Wendigos are in the Minnesota woods or...or northern Michigan. I've never even heard of one this far west." Sam sighs.

It makes so much sense. Of course Dean was confused. It never happens. He was double checking.

"Think about it, Dean, the claws, the way it can mimic a human voice."

"Great." Dean sighs, taking out his pistol, Roy twitches reflexively. "Well then this is useless."

"The fuck is a wendigo?" Haley snaps.

"We gotta get these people to safety." Jess growls.

"All right, listen up, it's time to go. Things have gotten...more complicated." Sam sighs.

"What?" Haley growls.

"Kid, don't worry. Whatever's out there, I think I can handle it." Roy says patronizingly.

"It's not me I'm worried about. If you shoot this thing, you're just gonna make it mad. We have to leave. Now." Sam growls back.

"One, you're talking nonsense. Two, you're in no position to give anybody orders." Roy snarls, stepping into Sam's face.

"We never should have let you come out here in the first place, all right? I'm trying to protect you." Sam shouted.

"You protect me? I was hunting these woods when your mommy was still kissing you good night."

"Yeah? It's a damn near perfect hunter. It's smarter than you, and it's gonna hunt you down and eat you alive unless we get your stupid sorry ass out of here." Sam was shouting now and Jess blinked in shock as Roy laughed maniacally.

"You know you're crazy, right?"

"Yeah? You ever hunt a wendigo, Roy?" Sam snarled.

"The fuck is a wendigo?" Haley repeated. Dean hold up a finger to her and turns to Sam and Jess.

"Jess, firewood, Sam..."

"Protection detail, got it." Sam grunts as Dean shoves him away from Roy. He and Jess disappear into the woods.

"Will you just tell me what's going on?" Haley screeches.

"Just a moment. I want to make sure we're safe first." He says, watching Sam draw symbols in the dirt around the campsite.

"What are those?" Ben asks, pointing to the most recent drawing.

"Anasazi symbols. It's for protection. The wendigo can't cross over them." Jess says from behind them, starting a large campfire. Roy's cynical laugh breaks through the silence and they all scowl at him.

"Nobody likes a skeptic, Roy." Dean sneers. Sam finishes the symbols and rolls a log over to the fire, cuddling up with Jess. Dean mimics vomiting and Jess giggles.

"So..." Haley says pointedly.

"Wendigos are supernatural creatures, monsters really."

"I don't...I mean, these types of things, they aren't supposed to be real." Haley says, frowning skeptically at them.

"I wish I could tell you different." Dean sighs, dropping onto the log besides his baby brother, watching as Roy rolled another log over for the others.

"How do we know it's not out there watching us?" Ben asks, believing him immediatley. Roy and Haley are staring at them incredulously.

"We don't. But we're safe for now." Dean sighs, glancing at the symbols and shivering a little.

"How do you know about this stuff?" Haley asks, hunching closer to the fire, pulling Ben with her. Dean and Sam shared a look. Sam shrugged and Dean nodded.

"Kind of runs in the family." Haley frowns and Sam scrubs his face wearily.

"So we've got half a chance in the daylight. And I for one want to kill this evil son of a bitch." Sam says. "But we don't have any supplies."

"Well, hell, you know I'm in." Dean chuckles, getting up to search through the ransacked supplies. Sam picks up John's journal and flips through it to show the trio a few pages.

"'Wendigo' is a Cree Indian word. It means 'evil that devours'."

"They're hundreds of years old. Each one was once a man. Sometimes an Indian or other times a frontiersman or a miner or hunter." Dean's disembodied voice floats over from the bloody inside of one of the tents.

"How does a man turn into one of those things?" Haley whispers as Dean picks a couple things up off the ground.

"Well, it's always the same. During some harsh winter a guy finds himself starving, cut off from supplies or help. Becomes a cannibal to survive, eating other members of his tribe or camp." His head emerges from the window of a tent to look at them. Jess smiles into Sam's shoulder.

"Like the Donner Party." Dean smiles proudly at him before disappearing again.

"Cultures all over the world believe that eating human flesh gives a person certain abilities. Speed, strength, immortality." Sam says drawing their attention back to himself.

"If you eat enough of it, over years, you become this less than human thing. You're always hungry." Jess says.

"So if that's true, how can Tommy still be alive?" Haley asks desperately.

"You're not gonna like it." They all jump at finding Dean suddenly standing there.

"Tell me." She demands.

"More than anything, a wendigo knows how to last long winters without food. It hibernates for years at a time, but when it's awake it keeps its victims alive. It, uh, it stores them, so it can feed whenever it wants. If your brother's alive, it's keeping him somewhere dark, hidden, and safe. We gotta track it back there." He says, sliding onto the log and fiddling with a few things he found in the tent.

"And then how do we stop it?" Roy asks skeptically.

"Well, guns are useless, so are knives. So...basically—" Dean smiles, holding up a can of lighter fluid, a beer bottle, and a white cloth he'd picked up. "We gotta torch the sucker." Sam frowned slightly at the feral grin that overcame Jess' face.

Sometimes she and Dean were eerily similar.

"It's getting late." Jess says poking the logs in the fire with a stick. "This thing is a good hunter in the day, but an unbelievable hunter at night. We'll never beat it, not in the dark. We need to settle in and protect ourselves." They all frown, trying to get comfortable.

XXX

Jess was like Dean in a lot of ways, Sam had noticed. One of those ways was the need to comfort and protect others. People seemed to trust Jess more, though, probably because she was a woman and could be perceived as less threatening. Sam watched as she sat with Ben and Haley and told them embarrassing stories about him.

"Dad's not here. I mean, that much we know for sure, right? He would have left us a message, a sign, right?" Sam sighed, turning to face Dean who was whistling and whittling away at a large chunk of wood. Dean looked up, surprised, knife pausing in the middle of a large cut.

"Yeah, you're probably right. Tell you the truth, I don't think Dad's ever been to Lost Creek." Sam grunted and scratched idly at his neck.

"Why are we even here?"

"This is why." Dean paused and tossed the journal at Sam. "That book. That is Dad's single most valuable possession—everything he knows about every evil thing is in here. And he's passed it on to you. I think he wants you to pick up where he left off. You know, saving people, hunting things. The family business." Dean smirked sarcastically, slicing off a large piece of wood.

"That makes no sense. Why doesn't he just—call us? Why doesn't he—tell us what he wants, tell us where he is?" Sam scowls. And then Dean's double meaning hit him. "What do you mean, he passed it onto me?"

"Dad's…he's an asshole and a stupid one at that." Dean sighed, setting aside his carving and pulling his knees up to wrap his arms around. Sam gasped; he'd never heard Dean insult their dad before this week; it still shocked him. Dean hadn't even insulted John when Sam was skipping out on them. Dean rested his head on his knees and turned to look at Sam. "He doesn't know I'm trailing him. I've been searching for months. Kinda gave up. But then I realized that while he knew he was being followed, he thought it was you."

"So you thought you'd get me in on the search?" Sam frowned. He already knew everything Dean was telling him, the overheard phone call explained enough. But still.

"Nah." Dean smiles slightly. "I was in the neighborhood, wanted to drop by and harass you." Sam rolled his eyes, flicking through the book.

"Well consider me harassed." Sam laughed. He looked up to see Jess smiling softly at him. He smiled back and Dean let out a wistful sigh.

"To tell you the truth…Dad thinks I'm dead." Dean whispered into the fire. Sam's head jerked around so fast he was blinking spots from his vision. Was Dean finally going to tell him why he faked his death.

"Why?"

"Because…I died." Dean sighed. "I honest to God died, Sam." Sam swallowed loudly in horror.

"But…you're alive."

"Yeah well…" Dean shrugged slightly. "God isn't done with me yet. But I'm in a shit-load of trouble and I could really use dad's help. Despite his many faults he's still a damn good hunter. The trouble is…he thinks I'm dead. And I can't just show up out of nowhere; he'll think I'm a demon or a ghoul or something and he'll try to kill me. I've already died once this year. I don't want repeat performance."

"So you thought that if you brought me a long he'd know it was really you." Sam said, frowning. He knew Dean was still keeping things from him. Lucifer's rising for one. But at least Dean was opening up more. Dean smiled guiltily and picked up his discarded block of wood.

"Something like that. But don't worry. I'll handle dad. After this case I'm dropping you and Jess off back home and you're going to get a normal life." Dean squinted at whatever shape he saw in the wood and made a precise cut. "And for God's sake marry that girl already."

XXX

The wendigo made its first appearance a little over a half hour later. Twigs snapped, branches rustles and the six in the clearing stood alert and wary.

"Help me! Please!" A pleading voice interrupted the quiet of the forest. Dean cocked his gun, looking around cautiously. "Help!" Sam scowled, studying the forest with the flashlight.

"He's trying to draw us out. Just stay cool, stay put." Jess said, patting Ben's shoulder comfortingly and swinging her flashlight around.

"Inside the magic circle?" Roy sneered.

"Hey Roy, you wanna go get eaten alive be my guest." Dean snarled.

"Help! Help me!" the plea sounded desperate followed by some ferocious growling. Roy sent Dean a withering scowl and pointed his gun at the source of the sound.

"That's no grizzly." He snarled.

Ben whimpered.

"It's okay. You'll be all right, I promise." Jess said, wrapping her arms around Haley and Ben. The bushes directly behind them rustled and the trio shrieked loudly.

"It's here." Sam whispered.

"Thanks for that Carol Anne." Dean side eyed Sam and was rewarded with bitchface number 12, _we-don't-have-time-for-your-pop-culture-references-dean-theyre-stupid-anyways_.

A gunshot rang though the clearing and heads whipped towards Roy who fired his gun a second time. This shot was rewarded with an enraged shriek and the sound of a body hitting the ground.

"I hit it!" Roy shrieked in triumph, running into the woods to see what he shot, even though they'd told him what it was.

"Roy, no! Roy!" Dean shouted after him. Roy's stupid ass disappeared into the woods and Dean swore. "Don't move." He snapped at the civilians and ran after Roy, Sam hot on his heels.

"It's over here! It's in the tree!" Roy's voice echoed from their left. When they reached where the sound seemed to have come from, there was no one there.


End file.
